Author: SengkangBabies

[ We are running a Tickets Giveaway till 30Mar 2018, Facebook link ]

No more shark fin’s soup. Our family pledged that sharks should be admired in their natural environment, and not served up in bowls!

I visited S.E.A Aquarium with Boon Xin recently, and it was another opportunity to explore Marine conservation with the kids.

Hey President Trump, even my 9 years old girl knows about the impact brought by climate change. Pollution, excess harvesting are destroying our ecosystem and depleting the fish stocks.

Many animals will disappear from the wild in this generation. Not extinct yet, but it means the only place to see a tiger or whale shark might be in zoo or aquarium! So Sad.

From now till 20 May, Resorts World Sentosa is hosting the first ever National Geographic Ocean Wonders event featuring the Ocean Record Breakers exhibition, Marine Photography Adventure and the National Geographic Ocean Exploration Children’s Workshop.

The Maritime Experiential Museum™ is reopen after an extensive revamp.

We followed some of the pioneer explorers and visited ancient Singapore. When Singapore was still a fishing village, the time before Sang Nila Utama, when merchants (and pirates too) used to ply the sea around Singapore.

Braving treacherous sea conditions, ships were the only means of transport for goods and human.  We could traced how spices were transferred from Asia to Europe, or Gold from Middle east to Asia. Cultures were exported via sea route too.

Trade, barter, economics, livelihood. Where the ships go, ports flourished and cities bloomed. This was the Maritime Silk Route.

Our girl understood more about the adventures and perils of an adventurer, and we had fun with the workshops.

Muscat was berthed outside last time, this boat was constructed with old workmanship and sailed all the way from Oman. Sailors used traditional navigational aids, no GPS or satellite back then 🙂

Photo below, can you guess where is the Head (aka loo)?

Our junior explorers pickup some life skills in the workshop. We need to understand North East South West before we can start navigating.

Seamanship requires us to be resourceful and adaptable. The Ocean is a harsh environment and rope skills secured our goods and ourselves.

Kids had an opportunity to craft their own yacht, or sampan. Just make sure your boat can float 🙂

With all the skills they pick up, we were ready to explore the Marine Silk Road on a Chinese Junk. However, we did not expect Typhoon to be so devastating!

The 4D experience was supposed to allow us to follow China’s emissary to somewhere in the Middle East… (fast forward) the crew encountered a Typhoon and our Chinese Junk became a wreck.

In another corner, we noticed “Noah’s Ark”  (the huge wall of giraffe, elephants etc) has been transformed into a pirate cove.

The second part of our exploration was the exploration of S.E.A. Aquarium. The highlight was S.E.A Aquarium’s newest resident, the sand tiger shark.

Kids are invited to go on a photography adventure and take part in an Ocean conservation mission.

Boon Xin is looking out for her Sand Tiger Shark.

Mr Bala told us Sand Tiger Sharks are harmless to humans, but the rows of menacing teeth told us otherwise :p

Save our Oceans! Protect the Marine Animals.

Beautiful corals. I shared with Xin that Great Barrier Reef (Queensland Australia) is the largest living structure, and the only one which can be spotted from Space! Unfortunately, coral bleaching is threatening to wipe out the reefs, and a vast habitat for organisms 🙁

Chocolate Chip Sea star 🙂

I hope the kids will have a better appreciation of our ecosystem, and we can all play a part to conserve our Ocean.

No more Shark Fins! Sharks are more graceful when they swim, not in a bowl.

Some of the featured animals (and experiments) from National Geographic and S.E.A Aquarium.

How can the cute colourful frogs be poisonous?

I shared with the girl that Nature has a unique way to shout “Don’t eat me!”. Leave the most colourful and brightest animals alone.

We need to talk about Recycling in the same wave as Conservation, they goes hand in hand.  We are dumping too much plastics and by-products into the ocean. All these rubbish follow the currents and end up somewhere.

Marine animals which mistake plastic for food choke their stomachs and die a miserable (and suffocating) death.

Ocean Record Breakers exhibition, the name is self-explanatory.

We saw some of the monsters, and all are still living in our oceans. I would recommend the kids to stay clear of the Giant squids. They are sperm whales’ favourite snacks, and not the delicious version we see skewed at Old Chang Kee.

Wow, 18m squid is longer than our 11m buses!

I hope future generation will have an opportunity to see the majestic Orcas, Mola (sunfish) and whale sharks in the wild, not in aquariums.

The other fishes in S.E.A Aquarium does look cuter. But I told Xin puffer fish are actually voracious hunter, they will tear their preys apart!
So much for fugu.  

You can take part in a photo contest too, simply submit one of the featured animals in S.E.A Aquarium to Instagram (public profile). Tag @rwsentosa and #rwsoceanwonders And you might be one of the lucky winners every month 🙂

I showed the kids additional videos on how we humans are damaging the Ocean.
-Trawler and dredging basically scoops everything  off the seafloor, there  must be a more sustainable way of harvesting.
-Plastic Ocean!

Video (YouTube link) : Sea Aquarium, Conservation

Thank you for the education experience, S.E.A Aquarium, I hope my kids will appreciate Mother Earth’s fragile ecosystem more.  I hope they play a part to conserve our  ecosystem and marine habitat for future generations.

Workshop and Ticket details are available at this link http://bit.ly/SEAANatGeoOceanWonders , read RWS’s review too.
Do follow RWS website and Facebook for latest updates.